Book Illustrations by Waller H. Paton, RSA, RSW (1828-95)

Biographical Introduction

The younger brother of Sir Noel Paton, Waller began his artistic career assisting his father as a damask designer but became interested in landscape in 1848, studied with John Houston RSA, and exhibited for decades at both the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and the Royal Academy in London. According to Wood's Dictionary of Victorian Painters (the source of the preceeding information), "He
was the first Scottish painter to paint a picture throughout in the
open air, and most of his subjects were the hill scenery of Perthshire,
Aberdeenshire, and especially Arran, generally at sunset. His prevailing
colour effect was the purple of the Northern sunset, and in his earlier
work, his close study of detail is almost Pre-Raphaelite" (360). A very popular landscape painter, "in 1858 he joined his brother in illustrating
Ayton's Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers (1863)" (360).